Environment Secretary Michael Gove MP addressed the ninth annual Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) in a marked departure from the usual, formal style expected of the Defra Secretary of State.

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A relaxed Michael Gove talked with a room full of hundreds of farmers, and academics, activists, campaigners. While some attendees came expecting to be hostile to the Secretary – the first to have been invited to speak at the ORFC – and by no means let him off the hook with the nature of their questions, the mood in the room seemed largely positive.

Colin Tudge, ORFC co-founder said: “The Secretary is certainly saying all the things that we believe is the only way to deliver our food and farming future, such as touting the benefits and viability of small to medium mixed farms, or recognising that present-day farming is largely not sustainable nor socially desirable.”

But questions remain for the ORFC organisers.

Colin said: “Michael Gove MP is the Secretary of State, but how much power does he actually have given that he’s a member of a party and a government, both subject to banks, corporates and multilateral agreements, all of which must surely exert more pressure as we go through Brexit and our various trade negotiations.”

Another concern is the unavoidable issue of succession. Colin explained: “Defra Ministers don’t stay in this job very long as a rule. And do Mr Gove’s welcome and refreshing statements represent a change of mood in government, or is he a maverick whose work will be undone?”

The conference organisers are clear that we must see what action comes from the statements made today, particularly regarding public payments for public good, as a next step on from the existing CAP payments.

These issues are very much an area of concern for ORFC delegates, as reflected in the sessions at this year’s conference, which include:

• Brexit-related issues, such as the public benefits or goods we could be seeking to generate from our new farming and land management policies
• The threats of falling diversity of farms and the value of supporting new farms and farmers
• Permaculture and bio-intensive methods for highly productive and profitable growing on a small scale while protecting the biosphere and sequestering carbon
• Realising the benefits of pasture-based farming for Britain

Colin concluded: “We should maintain the grassroots energy that the ORFC represents, it as crucial now as it ever was. It is tempting to rely on government when such positive things are being said, but we must not leave our futures solely in their hands. Too much depends on it.”